I do not support Sapphire for that exact reason. EVERY one I have ever had ... the fan breaks.

These 5850 Xtremes were the right card at the right price at the right time.. They came out during the Bitcoin bubble last year and for what? $140 each? With 1440 Stream Processing Units they are hard to beat. I like them better than my 5970s for thermal reasons.. I ended up underclocking the 5970s and overclocking the 5850 Xtremes and I end up with about the same output for $140 / core instead of $300+ (the average / core price I paid for the 5970s)

i have a 5850 and 5830 the fan on the 5850 is an 80mm.when the fan does go i plan on getting something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103071 and cut the fan out of the frame,bend the legs and drill the 3 holes.probably have to change the connector,but as long as the amperage is the same it should work

i have a 5850 and 5830 the fan on the 5850 is an 80mm.when the fan does go i plan on getting something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103071 and cut the fan out of the frame,bend the legs and drill the 3 holes.probably have to change the connector,but as long as the amperage is the same it should work

I've done this. You may wish to use a 15mm instead of the standard 25mm depth fan. I used a 25mm and the cooler cover sits a bit high. I just run the new 80mm off a molex.Also, try and find a fan with a high static pressure spec, since you're trying to push air thru some resistance (of the gpu cooler).

All you have to do is pop up the fan hub and apply oil directly to the fan shaft

I did apply some force to attempt to pop the hub off but it got to the point where it felt like it would break and I went the hole drilling path.. Can you give a little more detail? I have 9 of these cards so I expect I'll be doing this again at some point.

I would not try to "pop up the fan hub" as Photon939 says. I tried and broke the fan. You are trying to get lubricant to the shaft. That's the reason for drilling 2-3mm off center. I beleive at 8mm you are way too far from the shaft and you now risk drilling into the armature of the motor. If you nick an armature wire, motor is done. I showed Tri-Flow but I believe any teflon based aerosol spray will do the trick. I wasn't worried about the spray being "too energetic" I want some lubricant getting in there. After running them overnight, hit them with another couple short bursts. Forget about trying to reinstall the same sticker. It'll eventually fall off unless you clean off the fan hub nicely and apply new adhesive.

You are a gorilla then. I did this with no issues following the video's instructions.

When my 5850 (and 5870) fans fail, I just pop off the cowling, strap an 80mm casefan to the HSF unit with zip ties and fire it up. Keeps the cards cooler than stock fan, looks ghetto as hell, but works great and its' cheap/easy to replace if/when the fan fails again.

If you're searching these lines for a point, you've probably missed it. There was never anything there in the first place.

All you have to do is pop up the fan hub and apply oil directly to the fan shaft

I did apply some force to attempt to pop the hub off but it got to the point where it felt like it would break and I went the hole drilling path.. Can you give a little more detail? I have 9 of these cards so I expect I'll be doing this again at some point.

I would not try to "pop up the fan hub" as Photon939 says. I tried and broke the fan. You are trying to get lubricant to the shaft. That's the reason for drilling 2-3mm off center. I beleive at 8mm you are way too far from the shaft and you now risk drilling into the armature of the motor. If you nick an armature wire, motor is done. I showed Tri-Flow but I believe any teflon based aerosol spray will do the trick. I wasn't worried about the spray being "too energetic" I want some lubricant getting in there. After running them overnight, hit them with another couple short bursts. Forget about trying to reinstall the same sticker. It'll eventually fall off unless you clean off the fan hub nicely and apply new adhesive.

You are a gorilla then. I did this with no issues following the video's instructions.

When my 5850 (and 5870) fans fail, I just pop off the cowling, strap an 80mm casefan to the HSF unit with zip ties and fire it up. Keeps the cards cooler than stock fan, looks ghetto as hell, but works great and its' cheap/easy to replace if/when the fan fails again.

Not sure thats a good idea with all cards. Some have a "closed heatsink". If you look at the card as you normally would when its laying flat on a table, underneath the shroud you basically see a solid metal sheet with just a hole for the fan. The fan forces the air through the vents that you cant see from the top. Blowing on to that sheet is probably rather pointless. non reference XFX cards are like that. I had to put 3 case fans in series to keep a dead fan 5870 from melting. If Im not mistaken 5850 and 5870 reference coolers, while different are also mostly closed on the top.

Other cards have an "open heatsink" where the plastic shroud is actually needed to force the air through the vents of the HSF. In that case Im sure strapping on some case fans would work great and probably better than stock in an open rig.

Hmm... can you point to some pics of the two different kinds you're talking about? The ones I've put case fans on seem to be the 'closed' type you are describing, and I've actually gotten better cooling with the case fan and no cowling. But perhaps I've not seen the closed type you're talking about. The two cards abracadabra posted are the type I'm talking about - I've replaced those and had good luck with that.

The fans I've replaced are flat blade type, basically just like a case fan. Are you talking about the turbine type that are shaped more like barrel, such as the reference 5970/6990 fans? If so, then yes, I agree, replacing those with case fans would not be a good idea.

If you're searching these lines for a point, you've probably missed it. There was never anything there in the first place.

Hmm... can you point to some pics of the two different kinds you're talking about? The ones I've put case fans on seem to be the 'closed' type you are describing, and I've actually gotten better cooling with the case fan and no cowling. But perhaps I've not seen the closed type you're talking about. The two cards abracadabra posted are the type I'm talking about - I've replaced those and had good luck with that.

The fans I've replaced are flat blade type, basically just like a case fan. Are you talking about the turbine type that are shaped more like barrel, such as the reference 5970/6990 fans? If so, then yes, I agree, replacing those with case fans would not be a good idea.

Here is a pic of my XFX 5870 cooler:

Only the most right heatpipe is in an "open" section of the cooler

Just slapping a case fan on there without shroud isnt going to work IMO. Even with shroud it took me 3 fans stacked together blowing into where the original fan was, to keep temps acceptable:https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=62325.0

Yeah, those are the ones I'm talking about. The case fan cools better than the stock fan with a shroud. No joke, I have several running like that and they run cooler than they did new.

I think maybe the increased CFM from a case fan makes up for the loss of a shroud, and the closed design acts as a quasi-shroud anyway, providing better overall cooling at the expense of a bit of extra space (irrelevant in an open case with extenders) making it a 2.5 slot design, and it looks totally Road Warrior awesome... fans and shit strapped on for POWER! I need a VTEC sticker.

If you're searching these lines for a point, you've probably missed it. There was never anything there in the first place.

Are you sure you have the same kind of heatsink? If you strap fans to that heatsink without offset, you would get zero CFM... its almost airtight, its like gluing a case fan to a wall? Even with offset, you are only using ~30% of the surface of the cooler, if that, since you dont use the vertical fins and you get close to zero airflow over the heatpipes.

If you put them in the place where the original cooler was, I cant imagine a lot of airflow going through the heatsink either. Not without a shroud forcing the air that way, rather than going up and down with no resistance.

Oh well, if it works for you, so much the better. But I cant see how lol. I suspect you have a different heatsink where air can travel through freely, unlike this XFX one.

I will take a picture tonight, but yes, at least one of them is an XFX, I'm not sure about the other that I'm thinking about off the top of my head. Actually, on the XFX one, there is a bit of an offset, it's not flush... I think same on the Sapphire (I believe), but not sure... I do know the fins are enclosed as in your picture, though.

If you're searching these lines for a point, you've probably missed it. There was never anything there in the first place.

I will take a picture tonight, but yes, at least one of them is an XFX, I'm not sure about the other that I'm thinking about off the top of my head. Actually, on the XFX one, there is a bit of an offset, it's not flush... I think same on the Sapphire (I believe), but not sure... I do know the fins are enclosed as in your picture, though.

Any chance you can post that picture? Just had a couple 5850s fail and I bought replacement Accelero's for them. But a cheap 80mm fan would be the ticket. I have a couple 5870s needing fans as well.